Policy Committee Laying Foundation of Unified Schools

(Memphis) Right now school board members are putting together the details of how your child will be educated.

The unified board’s policy committee ultimately decides how the merged school system will work and the clock is ticking until those doors open.

Before a superintendent for the unified Memphis and Shelby County School Systems can be hired there, must be a hiring process in place.

That’s what the policy committee is working on now.

“This committee put together the policy of how you will evaluate the superintendent, and that must be in place before any superintendent can accept the position because they want to know how they will be judged,” said Policy Board Member Kevin Woods.

Woods says current Shelby County School Superintendent John Aitkin has indicated he wants the job, but Woods says they have hired a firm to do a national search for a superintendent, and that search will probably start by March.

At that time Aitkin will be considered.

Also on the committee’s agenda is the school’s transfer policies.

Policy Committee Chairman Betty Mallott says this is very important to parents and they need to know about the updated rules now rather than later, “It’s the paper work and how they know how to go about getting their student to the school they want them in the following school year.”

The committee is also changing MCS’s policy on teacher contracts.

Right now every contract over $50,000 goes before the board for approval, but next year it won’t go before the board unless the employee makes over $250,000.

They say this move is more like Shelby County`s policy and will save time.

When it comes to any policy the committee looks at recommendations from the transition planning commission and fine-tunes it.

Then they turn their recommendation over to the unified board for a final vote.

The board can’t revise every policy by August but they have prioritized the most important ones and will address those first.

This committee will decide all aspect of the schools like how students will get to and from school, how student will be disciplined, and attendance policies.